The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-06-12

were missing The log showed that the las
days work of the vessel had been on the oath o
November, time, when the weather had al
lowed an observation to be taken that placed hel
in latitude 1856 north. longitude 1920 west
The entries on her slate log were. however. car
ried down to o'clock of the morning of the 18th,
at which hour she had passed from west to east
to the north OF the island of ST Marys (Azoresl.
the eastern point of which then bore > 5 w,
six miles distant The distance in longitude
from the island of St. Mary's to the
point at which fell In with the Emily
Brand is 754: the corrected distance of the
latitude from the position last indicated 10 the
log is lis north; and the brigantine had appar-
emily held on her course for ten days after the
10Th of November, the wheel being loose all the
time But during the period from the 10Th OF
November to the 9TH OF Dece N ber the wind had
been more or lesssf from the north continuously.
and IL appeared to impossible that the dereilct
could have covered within that time distance
of 7-54 east. at any on the starboard tack.
The obvious inference was, therefore, that she
had not been abandoned until several days after
the last entry made In the log. BE that as IL
may, were at the conclusion OF our Investl-
cation early in the afternoon, utterly at loss to
form the vaguest con lecture or theory as to
the of desertion of the ships company
presuming them to have left in her missin z
boats to speculate with any reasonableness
upon the extraordirar series OF facts that have
related.
Theorizine thus being idle, Drayton who was
nothing if not practical, when occasion required
at once set about making his arrangements to
work our prize to Gibraltar. He dispatched the
mate and the two back to the Yacht with
orders to have Parker select five men from the
crew, one 10 be in authority as sailing master,
and send them a board the brigan tine prepared to
take up their quarters. Meanwhile he returned
TO the cabin to look over the log book again, and
some papers he had found in the captains room,
and went forward TO poke about the searlen
quarters which were to be occupied by the
Nomads men.
Fifteen minutes later, standing by the fore
mast facing aft. struck "A match to light my
cigar. As l raised my eyes from doing So dis
tinctly a man step from the rail at the port
quarter. move quickly across the deck and dis
appear in the companion-way. At the moment
| caught but the hrIefest glimpse of his face and
figure but they were not to be forgotten. He
seemed to have clamoered aboard from the sea,
for he was dripping wet and hatless, and his
light hair was matted or glued about his head
and face by the water while his clothes chung to
his body and limbs and gllstened and drlpped In
the sunlight His figure was gigantic. His face
and trunk were bloated, or distended, like those
of n man who had been drowned, and the for
mer without a vestige of color. was CHASTITY,
horrible and expressionless. even to the eyes,
beyond the possibility of description. / was
naturally startled and shocked by the sudden
ness OF his appearance and his extraordinary
condition; but not much that | failed to
shout halo, there" as / got sight of him. He
neither answered nor hesitated; he did not even
look towards me; but. almost l uttered the
words, disappeared. as 1 have said, down the
compan i6n- away. I hurried aft and entered
the cabin. There alone with his feet chair
before him. and the log book on his knees, was
panion-way. looked around saw no one else
(all the state-room doors were wide openl, and
in Management: Where is he9"
''Where is who?" drawed Draytou.
The fellow" replied. who just came in
here. Wake up jack I saw the man come in
here this moment He is here somewhere" /
trying TO open door in the forward starboard
state-room leading as | supposed, into the be-
tween-decks space. The door was fast. and
boted my side of it, No one had gone
through there.
turned back to the cabin, where my compan-
ion stood gazing at me curiously. He stepped
towards me, looked at me very closely. and said
then sharply:
whats the matter with you. old mani Are
you out of your mind? How could anyone have
come in here without my seeing himl"
l described the man. and added that could
swear had seen him enter the cabin three sec
onds before me.
Finally. somewhat impressed by my positive
ness. Drayton in spite of himself, went on deck.
following, and hsiling the yacht, he called
out Let the men. when the boat comes over,
bring the dog with them" And then to me, IF
here is any on board here Roy will find
him. though we can't"
AS we turned back TO the cabin 1 noticed that
hat part of the deck over which had the
stranger pass, dripping with water five minutes
before, was perfectly dry. as were also the brass
plates on the companion ladder down which L
had seen him disappear. This discovery both
sred me not little, as may oe readily imagined.
Still l remained firm in my conviction that
had actually seen the man, and had not, as
Drayton evidently believed, simply suffered an
optical illusion.
L paced the deck until the yachts boat arrived
With the men and Roy. When they had boarded
he brigantine Drayton came deck again and
We made another thorough search of her with
he dog running on ahead and with the aid of
wo bulls-eye lanterns that the had
,rought over. This second search was as fruit
ess Of result as the first. By the time had
inished it was after o'clock, and we were at
he point of returning to the yacht to pepare for
Inner when we decided that it would be best to
ock the cabin. We entered it for that purpose
md after having secured the doors of the state
ooms and closed the ports we turned to leave it,
)rayton preceding me towards the deck.
Half way up the companion-way it suddenly
occurred to me that | had left my cigar
ase on the table and l returned to get it. |
Is | again stepped into the apartment L saw,
learly defined, at the upper end of the bunk on |
he starboard side upon the partition, close by |
he state-room door, the shadow in profile |
f the face and figure of a man. The |
hade appeared to DO cast by some very tall per- |
on sitting on the bunk to my right, forward; |
ut there was no one there. matter of |
curse. / began to doubt the evidence of my |
euses, and stood for moment looking about |
ne in bewilderment. Recovering myself, how
yer. l approached the corner. convinced that
be dark gray shadow was a stain upon the paint.
pparently it was not. From the chair
he harmonum l took a loose sheet of music,
nd holding il between the shadow and the light.
looked behind it and perceived that that por-
on of the shadow-a part of the head and face
between which and the light l had interposed
ne oOStdclo mao peen oOlLeraIeO. On LOOKING
t the surface or the paper in my hand l beheld
ne missing portion of the shade clearly sill
ouetted thereon. Having thus satisfied myself
hat it was shadow aud one cast by some ito
el invisible and rnpalpable thing or substance
hardly need add that l became somewhat ex-
ted. shouted to Drayton. who Immediately
In back into the cabin, followed by the dog.
is examination of the phenomenon resulted
Sactly as mine had. On turning. at its conclu-
on, to speak to Roy, we found to our surprise
lat he had left u.s. Although we tried our best,
either by persuasion command could we
owe him to enter the cabin again. We looked
each other nonplussed, Drayton and i. and
N willing to confess that. mingled
it'll my feeling of triumph at
sving thus convinced him that
lere others at work beside ourselves
BOARD the mysterious derelict, was an uncom-
rtabie consciousness that the weird annoyance
as beginning to tell my and to ex-
te my Imagination disagreeably as to what was
come next Still l entertained not the least
,ubt that were tho victims of some vulgar
gglery practiced upon US for some unexplained
Jason by hidden human agents. / was morally
'sitive that this was the / had not, of
urse. had time to reason with myself to the
gic of the conclusion, but it the only nat
-al one. and certainly no other exnlauauatiou